2012 Narrow Gauge Convention Layout

It is all Jim's Fault,

On one of our TBS ( Train BS ) sessions recently Jim Smith (see My Friends Layout Photos) suggested after a serious head injury that we should put our Skills together and build a Logging Display layout for the 2012 Narrow Gauge Convention in Bellvue Wa ( @ 4 Hours away ). After placing him in a straightjacket and getting him some proper medical treatment we all agreed. We have been inspired by the Red Stag layout of a few years ago as well as more recent efforts such as the Dolly Varden modular layout done by our friends downunder. We have a confirmed Layout Builder amongst us who knows how to get things done in Stan Oxendahl, Jim Smith a layout veteran who thinks Sierra West kits are easy to build, Tom Jennings another Gifted modeler who has stepped up to On3 after years of HO building and myself , Jess Dozier who enjoys building 15 structures at a time and getting none of them actually done. We believe we have an agressive yet attainable goal and we even garnered permission to bring a hopefully completed layout 2 years and 6 months from now to the 2012 Convention.

Please Wish Us Luck.

Photos, Track Plan and Progress photos to follow in the upcoming weeks with Guaranteed Monthly Updates.

Progress as of Sep 27th, 2010

Sorry for so long between updates, we all were very summerized most of August, work is pretty rough for both Stan and I at the end August and September and the time off we did have was devoted to enjoying our very short summer with Family. I will be adding some pics of the complete rebuilds of the switches we undertook to make them DCC safe and more reliable in my next update this week. I also took a few pics of Stans scrathbuilt Tug Boat and Lumber Barge, he is also working on a Large Timber Crane for unloading on the Warf section he is working on. See Friends Layout pics for a couple of more Stan Layout pics. Only 2 years away, we should be making a lot more progress as we are back in a routine work wise again for most of our group. Last pic is a couple of Scrathbuilt camp cars he knocked out ( Stan is a Building Machine ) JD

Progress as of July 9th, 2010

Trackwork has finallly come to our little railroad, we used San Juan Car Company's new On3 track, ( we debated as to handlay or not ) and we have come away from the experience as converts. The track is of superb quality and goes down with amazing speed. Stan, Jim and I were able to lay all 190 ft in just 3 days while Tom put down the modular bus Lines for the DCC. I have included a couple of pics at the end of this section of some of the Flex that I cut some of the flex ribbons on so I could distress the track a bit as the San Juan track is too perfect. I will post more pics as I paint, distress and weather our track. We have been fine tuning the track and Stan put some drops so we can run my non DCC AMS switcher and a couple of cars for deraiment testing.

Progress as of June 30th, 2010

Roadbed is progressing fairly quickly, we will began tracklaying on July 1st. Following pics include Stan gluing down Homosote. I had a supply of S scale Homobed @ 180 ft that we were able to use ( perfect width for On3 Track ). Cork is used in areas we know will be removed for Bridges. We are going to lay all the track, dial in running for reliabilty and then cut out sections for Bridges, creeks, log Dumps, etc. Starting to look a bit more like a Model Railroad, we may work on 1 -8ft section after track is done to a 100% finished level. This will be to determine some pitfalls for the rest of the layout and to set a standard for the scenery of the entire layout. We are using code 100 San Juan track and switches. We had some discussion about handlaying track, however the sheer durability and qualityof the San Juan track is superb, we will have to do a lot of weathering and distressing of it to make it appear a little beat up, it is just a little big ( Code Wise ) and too perfect for our little logging railroad. I will post a track plan now that we are happy with Roadbed placement, but it is basically 2 loops that connect for interchange, but allow for continuous running of up to 4 trains plus perhaps a bit of switching. We still have a Sawmill section and a Wharf section to add on to each end of the Layout. JD, holy smokes, we have a lot to get done. 26 months to go, not as long as it seems.

Progress as of June 17th, 2010

It has been @ 6 weeks since last update, we have now completed benchwork, upper fascia, all the gussetting the layout needs, plus I beam box sections each 8 ft long to support the Layout. We have Fine tuned all the Joints with Bondo, lots of sanding and had the layout apart more times than we wish. The following pics are with the plywood templates sitting on the layout as we will began track laying this week , FINALLY!!!!!!!. We been pushing very hard to reach the tracklaying stage as we know this will reqiure a bit of debate. We must now define our little railroad with a bit more purpose, more pics to follow as we keep plugging along. Layout is 9 x 25 all On3. JD

Progress as of May 7th, 2010

Basic Benchwork of the 8 side modules complete, We should finish End Corner Modules within a week. 6 side modules are 4 feet long and 36 inches high with 2 additional side modules designed for a large trestle that drop and are an additional 18 inches lower. The Entire Layout will be @ 18 inches higher when displayed, @ bottom of Benchwork at 48 inches with trackwork 52 to 60+ inches for eye level viewing. We are buiding it a lower level to keep our old backs from falling apart, updates in a week. JD

The First photograph is from Australian Modeler Geoff Knott's O Scale Leigh Creek Layout which he is Constructing from the Remains of the Red Stag Layout Surviving Sections as well as new ones he is constructing. We are basing the Shadow box Features of our layout Benchwork below to emulate the look seen here. There are many more amazing pics of this layout as well as tons of great modeling reference pics on Mario Rapinett's site at